Chicago’s Miserable Milestone

Chicagoist magazine reported that the city reached a miserable milestone in May: 1,000 residents had been wounded or killed by criminals with guns, well ahead of last year’s pace.

Chicago recorded 133 homicides in mid-May, up from 114 during the same time period in 2014. And the violence continues unabated—as of June 1, 1,050 residents had been shot and wounded. The latest weekend’s toll was 33 wounded, five killed.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson and Rev. Michael Pfleger fell back on an old media tactic: They squalled shamelessly at a gun store. Anyone honestly trying to reverse this drastic decline must acknowledge that efforts to impose gun control upon lawful citizens waste resources that could be better spent providing relief to the suffering. Chicagoans deserve better than leaders who fail to protect them but won’t allow them to protect themselves.

Steffon Josey-Davis Receives Full Pardon

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has granted a full pardon to Steffon Josey-Davis, the young security guard who became a convicted felon after accidentally having his legally owned firearm in the glove box of his car during a routine traffic stop.

As we have covered here in the past, Josey-Davis was pursuing a career as a police officer at the time of his arrest, but saw those hopes dashed when he received the felony conviction under New Jersey’s extremely restrictive anti-gun laws. Additionally, upon conviction he lost his right to vote, and could no longer own or purchase a firearm.

“I feel great,” Josey-Davis said on Fox News yesterday. “I’m thankful for all the support I’ve been getting …” Read more on the Josey-Davis pardon here.

Montana Teen Proposes Ballot Initiative

After a campus carry initiative died in the Montana House during the last legislative session, one Whitefish High School junior decided that if he wanted schools in his state to be safer, he would need to take matters into his own hands.

Last week, 17-year-old Chet Billi filed paperwork proposing a ballot referendum on whether state teachers, faculty and administrators should be allowed to carry concealed handguns on school grounds. In an interview with KTVQ, Billi said he’s bothered that after school shootings “the first thing people want to do is take guns away from the people who could stop it.”

The ballot language has been sent to the Legislative Services Division, which has 14 days to recommend revisions. Once final language is approved by Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and Attorney General Tim Fox, Billi will need to collect 24,175 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot for the 2016 general election.

Anti-Gun Activist Demands Right To Make Terrorist Threats

A Missouri man has been arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and making a terroristic threat after visiting a pro-gun Internet page and asking, “Which [gun] do I need to shoot up a kindergarten?”

James Robert Ross, 20, posted the sophomoric but inflammatory comment under a pro-gun article on a Facebook page in January, and Jackson, Mo., police arrested him the next day. Ross has now filed a lawsuit against the Jackson Police Department and the arresting officers, claiming his comment was protected by the First Amendment and seeking punitive damages.

While one might be inclined to agree with Ross that his speech was constitutionally protected, one is also reminded of the joke about catching a tiger by the tail: Just because one can do something doesn't mean one should.

History Repeats Itself In Detroit

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a story that we already covered in the past week, but it’s not: Another woman in Detroit used a firearm to deter an attempted carjacking. It was 5 a.m. Monday when the unnamed armed citizen had a man approach her in her vehicle, allegedly trying to steal it. She produced her handgun and fired at the perpetrator, causing him to flee. Police had not caught the suspect at the time of the report, but had found some blood near the scene of the incident.

When the same story takes place twice in Detroit, it’s all too common for it to be a depressing tale. It is wonderful to see a narrative emerging of Detroit residents refusing to tolerate the lawlessness that has threatened to overrun their city.